Halloween 2011

Len always says that the haunted house is the one event that he always looks forward to every fall; when the summer ends and he begrudgingly goes back to work, his one consolation is that soon it will be time for scaring ourselves silly at the haunted house. 🙂

I’d say he looks a little scared already… 😛

I’d say Minnie is too:

But I don’t think Ryo scares easily:

Me, I saved up a year’s supply of screaming for this night.

This year’s theme was “Barbaric British Columbia”:

The picture above is a hint of the funniest display room in the haunted house (we weren’t allowed pictures inside); it was London Drugs being vandalized and looted from by rioters. AWE.SOME. Another personal favourite of mine was the Tax-Payer’s Hell.

And the biggest laughs of the night came when we got interviewed on camera while in line. When asked what was our biggest fear going into the haunted house, Len replied, “peeing my pants!”

But we survived with our bladders more or less intact, and it was a great way to get into the Halloween spirit!

Then last night, we had our annual Pumpkin Carving Party! I cannot describe or explain just how much I love pumpkin carving. For me, it is what the haunted house is for Len. I look forward to it starting every September, and spend weeks, days, ok fine, hours (I’m a procrastinator afterall), thinking of the perfect image to carve.

This year, I had so much fun coming up with our Halloween-inspired eats for the night!

During the course of the evening, we consumed:

Pumpkin Juice, which I made using this recipe. I wasn’t entirely convinced that I’d like the taste, but it was a hit! The only thing I changed from the original recipe was I omitted the white pepper (cuz I didn’t have any), and added a pinch of ground cloves. Also, I didn’t strain it cuz I was too lazy; the juice was a bit thicker, but not pulpy. It tastes somewhere between pumpkin pie and apple cider.

Indian Shepherd’s Pie, inspired by Mama Pea’s recipe from her cookbook. But mine wasn’t vegan, obviously, as it had turkey in it. I was “cooking on instinct” yesterday (aka too lazy to measure anything), so I will post that recipe another time when I’m feeling more disciplined. (I also failed to snap a picture cuz hunger took over)

Halloween Cake Balls! I’ve been wanting to try my hand at these forever now, and we had so much fun decorating them. I pretty much followed Pioneer Woman’s instructions exactly, although mine did not turn out nearly as cool as hers did. I found I had a lot of trouble getting the coating on smoothly, and we could have benefited from more variety in decorating tools. But oh, did I mention how good and positively addicting these were?? I won’t mention just how many of these balls I consumed yesterday…

Cookies, Ice cream, and Pumpkin Pie!

It’s really a wonder any of us could move enough after dinner to carve our pumpkins. That and we were distracted by The Amazing Race! (Is anyone else loving this current season as much as I am? Especially in the first couple of episodes, I really enjoyed how the clues were more vague and challenging. This show is another one of my favourite things about fall.)

But carve we did, and here are our creations:

Jen’s “Dawn of the Dead”:

Len’s was Starcraft-inspired:

Min’s was cheerful and classic:

Mine was The Hunger Games mockingjay:

And Kanata’s amazing fish:

Altogether now (minus Jen’s cuz she had to leave earlier):

On another Halloween note, have y’all seen the Halloween Google Doodle this year? If not, check out the google page–so cool! And here’s an interesting look at the behind-the-scenes for the doodle:

unfortunately no, I don’t have any tips, other than creating a fondu type of set up with a tealight under the pot of chocolate to keep it melty and fluid. I think my single and only attempt at cake balls will go into the “been there, done that, not ever trying that again” category ;P florence documented my attempt at making these Easter chicks here http://www.flickr.com/photos/shutter_grl/5698475176/in/photostream But seriously, the one “tip” idea that came to my mind for “next time” if there would ever be one was — buy Tim Horton’s old fashioned plain donut holes and decorate those instead (because at least they are smooth in surface) 🙂